iambic has released Agendus 9, a new version of its award-winning, integrated personal information manager for Palm OS devices. Agendus 9 delivers a higher level of functionality and offers a richer, more insightful experience for palmOne Treo users.

To-do

Granted, Agendus has a lot of nice features, but "most robust To-Do management system" is wildly overreaching. The addition of hierarchical relationships sounds promising, but it evidently still falls far short of the To-Do structuring capabilities of something like Life Balance.

RE: To-do

RE: To-do

Life Balance is a great app, yes. Agendus is a complete pim replacement and the urgent/important matrix and the todo outline feature are just part of a GREAT app. You can't tie your contacts to the todo feature in Life Balance like you can in Agendus. Not to mention Life Balance is like $79.00.

RE: To-do

If your work revolves around contacts, Agendus is a good choice for your primary application. If your work revolves around tasks, Life Balance (or Bonsai, or Shadow Plan) is probably better. There's a variety of great software available for a variety of needs. My point was only that iambic is overselling Agendus as a premier to-do list manager. Maybe with this first step toward structuring the to-do list, though, they'll be heading in that direction.

T5 Bug

Version 8.0x would crash the T5. And when it didn't, it would sufffer the dreaded PIM exit lag - around 10 seconds. I don't think any of the DateBook replacements have managed to lick this problem. Hey listen, if it works, I'll buy it. I love the T5, especially now that I've got WiFi working on it.

RE: T5 Bug

The problem with the T5 and Treo 650 appears to be a serious flaw in the PalmOne DataManagerPatch that causes crashes during some delete functions. Pimlico already has a workaround available in a version of datebk5 on their website. That guy is something else. I wish I could find a way to disable this patch. Agendus is what I've always used. It makes my new Treo lots less fun

RE: Which one is this?

What is *not* water under the bridge, I'm afraid, is the thinking or policies behind that move.

What I mean is this: if you like spending several hundred dollars for an app over the course of its life, by all means, go with iambic.

I bought Agendus back when it was called ActionNamesDatebook. Eventually, I got fed up with every little tweak being called an "enhancement" and therefore costing at least $10 a pop. I probably spent over $200 on this one app over the years, and I have *never* had that situation with any other third-party app in the nine years I've used a Palm OS device.

I can understand the need to be profitable and charge for major overhauls, but iambic has gone far beyond this principle.

RE: Which one is this?

Agendus to me is well worth the investment. Can't really see it having been $200.00 since its inception. What with the OTA capabilities now and what else is coming down the line for the Treo 650, it is the one app. I wouldn't have on my device. being able to dial from an appointment, or send an sms or email if you are running late without going to the address book or email app. is very cool. Not to mention having a picture next to the appointment!

Is iambic the sleaziest Palm software company of all time?

iambic's buggy software and questionable update policy have always been troublesome. But it was their history of extremely sleazy business practices that made so many veteran Palm users resolve to never touch an iammbic app again. Ever.

RE: Is iambic the sleaziest Palm software company of all time?

I agree, and I've been a Datebk user for many years, but this time I think I may purchase Agendus. I can tell that their morals have not really changed over time, and all the negatives everyone says is true, but when was the last time Datebk really introduced major new features? Now you can argue that it's always been better so it doesn't have to catch up, which is still true in many respects, but we're heading into 2005, and DB5 doesn't do anything you couldn't do three or four years ago. Today's handhelds are capable of so much more, some of which you may calls bells and whistles, but they also add to the usability of the apps. I know CESD doesn't have the same mercenary motives for improving his app, so I say good for him if he'd rather spend time with his gorillas than write updates. I, however, have given up hope that his beautifully designed app from an earlier era will ever join us in the present one.

RE: Is iambic the sleaziest Palm software company of all time?

I spent £££ on i****c software, and just a few months ago shelled out on an upgrade to Ag***us 8.0 promising to be the killer app. My treo 600 reset with remarkable regularity after installing Ag***us 8.0, and 8.01, and 8.02 all the way up to the STILL buggy 8.06... through bug reports I tried to tell them, and nothing happened - I even tried betas - and now they drop 9.0 out without warning.

They ask for an UPGRADE FEE to a very lacklustre 9.0 - I tried it - not much has changed since 8.0, and my TREO STILL CRASHED!

And they sit pretty in the knowledge that mugs will pay... well NOT THIS MUG. Bye bye i****c - you've lost me as a customer and I won't be spreading happy comment about you either.

As for their mail client... forget it for SMS on a treo. It's horrendous!

Yet another UNHAPPY i****c customer here.

I'm now back on Beyond Contacts and it NEVER crashes.

RE: Is iambic the sleaziest Palm software company of all tim

I bought Agendus Pro 8 less than a week before 9 came out and my 8 regcode works on 9, without me paying anything additional.

That is the good news. The bad news is that Agendus Pro, version 8 or 9 does not work on my device. For some reason that I, Iambic Tech Support, and the message board community cannot understand, only certain events show up in my Agendus calendar while others do not. I even emailed my datebookdb to tech support and they can see all the events on their device while I cannot on mine.

I really only bought Agendus for the mail application (which works fine). It is just that, now that I can't have the PIM app, I really want it :).

So it is still DateBk5 for now.

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RE: Is iambic the sleaziest Palm software company of all time?

I downloaded the demo of version 9, and their e-mail program locked my T3 up 4 times when I tried to delete one of their info-e-mails that came with it so I deleted the e-mail program. When trying to find my way around the Agendus Pro demo I received a "fatal exception" error message three times. Well I deleted that program too. I'm sticking with DateBk5,I have never once had a lock-up with DateBk.

"Hambug or Ba-gug, that's me.!"

Standing Up Against Complacency

I was an avid user of agendus/Action Names since 1999. I loved their app and stuck with them through every bug and upgrade. I even bought the desktop app and upgraded to professional version. So far, my total cost for Agendus... Over $140.

And I'm not using it.

Why wouldn't I use something I've sunk so much money into? Good question. The answer is sad: I don't use it because I can't use it.

Agendus is unstable. Not just buggy. I agree with a previous poster; when Agendus 8.x was on my T3, it reset 4-7 times, DAILY. I took it off, and now no more resets. The bugs that came along with version 8 were the worst I've even seen from the company. Default alarm settings were ignored. Todo alarms wouldn't set for any day but the due date; pull down the list, pick a different date, NOPE! Date stayed the same. Want to look at what alarm you picked on a previously scheduled event? Can't! The form would blank out at that area. You'd have to uncheck the alarm box, and recheck it, but then the alarm would be set to the first alarm in your list (not your default choice). Want to tap on a hour slot and schedule something? If I did that, Agendus would pause for 1-2 seconds while sending out machine gun-like clicking sounds before opening the form to schedule something.

The worst part of all was that I could even open the default Tasks app without a crash. It was "unable to calculate blah-blah-blah". I had to completely erase my Todo database to be able to get access to it in any way other than agendus.

I know that there's problems with the way Palm's Data Manager works. And I know its hard to work around. But after a few months of hearing my T3 click like a locust everytime I wanted to schedule something and crashes everyday, I have had no other choice than to revert to the standard palm apps.

Do I like it here? No. But the only thing I want is what Action Names offered, and I can no longer have it. I am amazed that they would put out a product that doesn't work on the most standard of Palms (T3 is quite common, I think) and then charge for upgrades. If you don't mind being a beta-tester, give this a try. It's tempting, isn't it? All those nice features, those pretty screen shots? Its the the most beautiful, sexy, bright-eyed palsy you've ever seen.And now I can't go back because it would cost me money again!

You know, my boss always says, "It's amazing what people will put up with."

RE: Standing Up Against Complacency

I bought Agendus a while ago... also own Datebk5 but need something that has a better contacts/task management system.

I tried Desktop to Go and it was OK (at the time), but didn't offer everything I desired... so I went to Agendus.

Agendus is one of the prettiest pieces of software you could ever want to see, it looks slick, but you could compare it to a DeLorean car - it looks mighty pretty, but runs like a dog.

Crashes... my Treo and T3 both left clicking... and clicking... and clicking... my Treo BIG STYLE crashing leaving me with an empty treo and having to restore my data (thanks BackupBuddyVFS), the mail client which, again, looks pretty... but works about as well as a chocolate teapot. Buggy, crashes.

Iambic have the cheek to call bug fixes and minor changes that to another producer would be a free "Minor upgrade" (ie. 1.0 to 1.1 to 1.2) a "Major upgrade" and then charge for it.

People are wise to this... they don't trust Iambic any more.

LONG LIVE BEYOND CONTACTS AND DATEBK5!

am i the only one who likes agendus?

I used DateBk in its various incarnations for years, and last summer switched to Agendus because it was just a little bit better, a little bit more of what I wanted. I haven't had any problems. DateBk (starting with 3, all the way through 5) used to crash predictably but avoidably. I've never once had agendus crash (this is on my TH55. DateBk crashed on everything I've had starting with my IIIe back in 1999), and overall I'd say I'm quite happy with it.Now, I was reluctant to even try it because of the sketchy things iambic have done in the past, that and because I know i'll have to pay for every upgrade and that my registration will only carry over to two more devices. But, with that said, over the years I've had a ton of registered software go unused and not make it onto a new handheld, and if I still like agendus this much 3 PDAs down the road, I'll probably be OK with plunking down another $45 on it. Oh, and for the record, I bought the v9 upgrade today and I've been playing around with the new features. The ToDo list upgrade is sort of anemic, but I mostly use it for a few scheduled tasks (like bills, etc), and use bonsai for complex checklists and outlines. Otherwise, I think this upgrade is worth the price.

--------------------------------------"Well, if it isn't the leader of the wiener patrol, boning up on his nerd lessons"http://stirwise.com

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